Mass protests over decrepit schools and absent teachers are in their third week, with more planned. Officials have failed so far to quell a movement drawing many adult supporters.
Anger about classroom overcrowding, teacher shortages and broken-down buildings has boiled over in recent weeks, and threatens to coalesce into broader grievances in a heated political season.
India’s youngest students are staging sit-ins and protesting the run-down conditions of their schools, drawing inspiration from the Gen Z protests that roiled the country this summer.
Angered by poor classroom conditions, students at Paul Éluard High School in a suburb of the capital were among the first to blockade their campus during an ongoing round of unrest.
Union members, parents, teachers and others took part in mass demonstrations around the country, backing student demands that the government invest more in schools.
The Trump administration released a report showing career officials had objected to the 2021 memo as evidence that the policy was biased against conservatives. But in an ironic twist, the administration has forced out many of the objectors.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland issued the memo in 2021 to investigate purported threats to schools officials as schools across the country started a third academic year of Covid-related restrictions.
Hundreds of schools will suspend some or all classes on Monday, the education minister said, as students protest conditions in the education system. Thousands of protesters have been arrested and hundreds of people injured.